Crackdown targets internet cafes

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Chinese authorities say they have shut more than 8600 unlicensed internet cafes in the past three months in their latest campaign to bring the web under tighter political control.

Ostensibly, the crackdown is to protect teenagers from long internet benders playing combat games and the like. The case of two students in Chongqing, who fell asleep on a railway line and were run over on March 31 after a 48-hour internet session, is cited. "Some unlicensed internet cafes... still need to be clamped down on, and some local governments do not impose severe punishment on those cafes who allow the entry of juveniles," Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

But preventing customers from gaining access to "unhealthy information online" is also a concern behind the drive against unauthorised public internet venues. Preventing anonymous access to the internet from cafes has been one prong of Beijing's drive to negate the web's political power.

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Cafes face tough restrictions, including keeping records of all websites accessed by their computers. The other prong is a force of internet police who operate filters that block access to sensitive sites.

But the volume of internet messaging may be overwhelming the net police. As soon as they are shut down, political critics find ways to reopen chat rooms and websites.

New software also helps net surfers find their way around the Great Firewall to banned websites.